The Before Short Story Series. Part 1

For a moment Jordan thought of asking Sarah if she was following the indicated diet for Ozzie, but then he realized that this question would have compromised him: how could he imagine the very possibility of the indicated course of actions in his house not being followed.

‘Sarah, today I will have my lunch outside.’

‘I will get it ready in a moment. I need some fifteen minutes.’

‘Very well, thank you.’

Jordan went through the living room to the terrace windows. Ozzie followed him at his foot, wagging her tail in a pleased way and glancing at him every few seconds—making sure that he was still there by her side. ‘The weather’s quite rough today,’ observing the waves, Jordan doubted the feasibility of his idea to have a lunch outside. He looked at the windmills, located as far as possible from the house, so that not to spoil the ocean view from the living room and the terrace. ‘The rotation speed is higher than usual. The wind is too strong and it looks like it can still rain in a while.’Approaching the end of the living-room glass wall, he pressed a button—and immediately a breeze hit his face, as though it carried all the energy stored in the deep ocean. Running out to the open area of the terrace, Ozzie began to bark. ‘Well, five minutes or so and we are frozen here for sure.’

‘Ozzie, come here! come here, my girl!’

By the glass barriers and still barking loudly, Ozzie was looking at her master. ‘Well, let’s see what is so interesting that you saw there.’ Jordan came up to the dog and looked around. A strong wind was hitting his face with cold blasts. It seemed that the splashes of breaking waves down below the cliff were reaching him.

‘Let’s go home, Ozzie. Let’s go.’ Jordan patted his leg and went back to the living room. The dog, waddling slightly awkwardly, followed him there.

‘Sarah, I am afraid the idea of a terrace lunch is not working out. Please bring everything to my first-floor study.’

‘I sure will, Jordan’, the assistant’s voice came out of the watch on his wrist. He appreciated a lot Sarah’s approach to her job, and he did trust her. As much, sure, as Jordan could trust anyone at all. Even so, the fact that he was ready to leave Ozzie with Sarah for a week when going away on a business trip spoke volumes about their relationship. Earlier he would take the dog with him on all trips, which naturally caused a lot of issues and slowed the work process considerably. It was necessary to observe all kinds of quarantines and to comply with all the varied requirements for animal transportation that applied in different countries. He entrusted all house keeping to Sarah. She was the one in charge of organizing and overseeing house repairs, maintaining a fleet of cars, and even of buying his underwear. Jordan set up a separate account for housekeeping, the money in which was totally under Sarah’s control—she would also hire various contractors to maintain all the environment where Jordan led his life. He appreciated—no, he greatly appreciated Ms Estrada’s work and he paid generously for it. Six years after she got the job, she brought over her whole family from Mexico to the States.

Ozzie lay on a leather couch by the window while Jordan sat down at his desk and turned the TV on, choosing a news channel—just to make the room less empty.

‘Did you get cold out there? Ozzie?’ The dog was trying to get her nose under the nearby plaid. Jordan walked up to her and covered her. Sitting down next to the dog, he started petting her muzzle. The black spot around her black eye was suggesting an uncommon coloration: on one side, the left side, she was completely white—and the other side she had it all covered with black spots, just as well as her right paws in black socks. ‘An interesting mutation,’ noted Jordan to the breeder upon seeing the energetic active puppy for the very first time.

‘Oh Ozzie, how quickly flies the time! we’ve been living in this house for eight years already. Soon our big project will be done, my girl. Who knows, what we shall be doing afterwards.’

Ozzie was happily snoring, her muzzle next to her master.

Tokyo

‘Ayaka, we’re leaving in five minutes! are you ready? everything you need too?’ shouted Hiromi from her bedroom.

‘Yes, Mummy, I am ready.’

‘Ayaka, what’s that?! why are you still not wearing the dress I gave you? why are you in your tights? we have no time at all! the train will be at the station in twenty minutes. Please, get your tighties off quickly and put your dress on.’

‘Mummy, I did everything the way you told it last time: the air conditioning is on, so I am in tighties.’

‘Ayaka, did you get what I was saying—get your tights off and put your dress on! please hurry up! otherwise we will miss the train. We’ll already have to call a taxi to the station.

In ten minutes Hiromi and her daughter were standing on the Tsuru station platform, waiting for a high-speed train that would bring them to the capital city centre in twenty minutes. In Japan, the idea of building underground high-speed expressways was rejected due to the high risk of regular earthquakes, which although possible to compensate with use of some advanced engineering technology of our days, would be simply too costly to maintain. Japan Rail focused their efforts on creating a ground-level system of high-speed trains. Its main working principle is similar to that of the underground expressways: levitation, based on superconductor magnets. As there is no physical contact between the surface of conductive rails, which create a strong magnetic field, and the train, friction can be avoided altogether. Taking into account the unavoidable limitations of the ground level, such as train body air drag, the maximum speed values of Japanese trains could not reach the levels set by the newest transport infrastructure in other parts of the world. Nevertheless though, the artificial intelligence based on the quantum computing power of the PAX system allowed the engineers to increase the reliability and efficiency of the Japanese rail transport system.

On the platform, where a dozen people had gathered together with Ayaka and Hiromi, rang an announcement, ‘Dear passengers! the train No. 3346, Nagoya–Tokyo, in five minutes will be stopping at the Tsuru station at the second track. The stop duration is limited and will last no longer than one minute. Please make sure to get ready for boarding in advance.’

‘Mummy, look, what a cute train! why does it have such a long nose? Mummy?’ Ayaka was gesturing quickly, greeting the swiftly approaching train.

‘Let’s take our seats and I will explain you everything there.’

‘Sure, Mummy.’

‘Ms Arai,’ a steward approached the newly-boarded passengers as soon as the train started accelerating, ‘I greet you on board the Japan Rail train. Would you like to order anything?’

‘Thank you very much. Could I please have a bottle of still water? It is very hot outside today.’

‘It is good that at least in Tokyo it is a little cooler than yesterday. Your daughter will feel better there,’ continued the steward while passing a bottle to Hiromi.

‘And we are going to the Destiny house!’ Ayaka was curiously studying the steward’s uniform.

‘This is sure to be a great day for you! I have been to the Destiny house so long ago, but I still remember all about how it was. Me as well, young lady, I went there together with my mother. It was fifty years ago at this point, and I still remember everything. Congratulations! What is your name?’

‘Arai Ayaka, Mr Steward.’

‘Here, Miss Ayaka, please have this gift from the Japan Rail company! and receive our congratulations on this very important day in your life!’ the steward handed a long cardboard box, which had something roll around inside.

‘Thank you very much, Mr Steward!’ Ayaka slipped down from the seat and made a bow.

‘Very well, Ayaka. Let’s see what Mr Steward has given you,’ Hiromi helped her daughter unwrap her new gift.

In a colourful, vividly decorated souvenir box there were a colour book, a set of felt-tip pens, a badge, a hat with the JR logo, and an authentically-styled paper scroll, rolled into two coils on two wooden sticks.

‘What’s this, Mummy?’ Ayaka picked the scroll by one of the sticks, while the other one fell out of the box and rolled down the carriage floor, unfolding the whole scroll.

‘Right, Ayaka, let’s get it all back together quickly. Roll it back in,’ said Hiromi, unamused.

‘I didn’t mean to.’

‘It’s fine, never mind. Please roll it back carefully. It is the history of Japan Rail company. Read it, Ayaka, and then you’ll tell me what it is about.’

‘Sure, Mummy!’

‘I hope there will be enough to read until we reach Tokyo. Oh, I wish it were,’ Hiromi picked up the communicator and started scrolling through the news feed of House, a social network. She reached the Haute couture, explained in simple words section…

‘Mummy, I finished,’ Ayaka started rolling the scroll back in.

Hiromi looked at her daughter, slightly surprised, ‘When would she have the time,’ she thought, ‘to read through all of that?’

‘Right, Ayaka. Tell me please what it is about.’

‘This is a story about how Japan Rail started building new high-speed train tracks across the whole country in 2059. They also tell about the PAX system and how it helped make the trains faster yet. Mummy, and what is the PAX? tell me more, please.’

Hiromi found an article about the PAX on her communicator and gave it to her daughter, ‘Here, please, read, Ayaka. I sure won’t be able to remember all the important details. Here you can learn a lot more.’

Hiromi looked out the window. The train was swiftly passing by small towns, the existence of which could only be deduced from the sound barriers installed to protect the dwellers from the noise of trains passing by at 600 km/h. Here and there between the hills—somewhere seemingly soft and yielding because of the green tree carpet, somewhere dangerously sharp with grey-brown rocks, reminding of a seasoned predator’s chisels—majestic stood Mt Fuji. This year it had no snow cap because of the unusual for the Eastern coast of Japan heat that came about in August. Hiromi did like looking at it, one of the main symbols of the country—yet she couldn’t help being jealous, resentful of the fact that it was taking nearly all of Keirou’s time leaving her with so little, and that was almost bringing her to desperate tears from time to time. A little animal park, a number of observation decks, meteorological and seismological stations, a museum, an infinite flux of tourists—requiring several hundreds of employees in high season—all that demanded attention and care. ‘Keirou is finding time for them, for Ayaka, but—unfortunately—not as much for me… well at least the article is long enough,’ thought Hiromi and tried to get those unpleasant thoughts away by immersing herself in an article about the summer 2167 holidays season trends on her tablet.

‘Mummy, I’m done!’ Hiromi looked at her daughter, ‘How could it be?!’ but showed not a thing.

‘That’s great, Ayaka! please tell me what you have read.’

‘So apparently the operation of artificial intelligence on the basis of a distributed quantum computer system, PAX, was started back in the middle of the last century, in 2053. The main developer of the system, Jordan Bensock, is a genius programmer and engineer from the U.S. He is still alive. Today Bensock is the richest man on the planet. His personal fortune exceeds one trillion dollars. Can you imagine, Mummy, Mr Bensock could help make refurbishments in Grandma Yano’s flat! Mummy, let’s write him about Grandma, let’s ask him to help her!